MASON

My jeans barely fit over my massive body. The minute I put on my old shirt, it ripped across my chest like a bad super-hero movie.

I was used to being shirtless but this felt… different. As if I was standing on holy ground and would get struck down for not having enough clothing on.

Serenity gave me a terrified look before quickly redressing. I wanted to take her fear, all of it, and make it go away.

But when I was the very thing she had been taught to fear?

Like every immortal out there?

What then?

It was a mistake; it had to be.

I felt my wolf growl within.

I was still a wolf.

I was still me.

And yet, I wasn’t.

I didn’t know how to process what was happening to my body as my thoughts went a million miles a minute only to focus once more on Serenity. “I protect what’s mine.”

A knock sounded at the door.

I was more worried that they were knocking than if they’d just appeared out of nowhere.

I gripped Serenity’s hand and walked down the stairs to the front door, then jerked it open too hard, causing it to come off the hinges.

Hell.

Ethan was gonna be pissed.

“Gadreel,” the man said. The name that fell from his lips was the same one that one of the Watchers had said to me during the car accident, as if I had someone or something trapped inside of me, and he’d been waiting for me to set it free.

I shivered and kept Serenity behind me as I stared him down, waiting for something, anything. My hesitation was short-lived when his name was pushed into my brain like someone had shoved a giant object past my eyes that read Armaros.

I gulped and then whispered, “Armaros,” testing the way it sounded in the air.

His lips parted, and then he hung his head as if he’d been waiting a million years to hear his name released into the universe.

He raised his eyes and tilted his head in a predatory way as the men behind him watched, waiting, it seemed, for him to move, to do something. “Do you… remember?”

I didn’t want to remember.

I didn’t want to know.

My wolf cried out.

No. It would hurt too much.

My body had already suffered greatly; my mind was just barely hanging on by a thread. I’d lived thousands of years alone. I’d lost. I wasn’t sure I could handle someone else’s memories, the memories of what it would feel like to be one with creation — then the feel of it being ripped from my very hands.

“I don’t want to,” I said honestly.

“You…” He lifted his hand as his eyes flashed silver. “…have no choice.”

The minute his palm pressed against my forehead, a chill washed over my body, and then I was on a mountain in the bitter cold, frost coating my lips as my heart slowed to a normal rhythm.

I watched.

I was one who watched.

I watched the humans.

I protected the mountain.

My job was to watch.

A war broke out.

“NO!” a woman screamed. “Help us!” She looked to the mountain, to us, her protectors, but it was not our job to intervene.

And then, a flinch.

The howling of a wolf was our only warning, and then a second, followed by several more.

Do. Not. Do. This.

The Creator will never forgive you.

A decision.

My body shook as one of us, Sariel, took a step forward. Setting his eyes upon the children being thrown into the fire by the enemy. “We must stop this.”

“Our job is to watch,” another brother said. “And watch we will.”

I found myself taking a step forward.

Armaros put his hand on my shoulder.

The howling intensified.

And slowly, one by one, my brothers and I began charging down the mountain. We slaughtered them all; the enemy’s blood coated my sword and gold breastplate. I felt nothing but anger.

Resentment.

I felt.

And I had never felt before.

I did not know how to deal with this emotion filling my lungs, making it hard to breathe.

And as I walked back to my spot on the mountain, I knew our lives were never going to be the same, for we’d taken our eyes off our purpose. And there would be hell to pay for it.

Sariel was the last.

I watched him talk to a woman. I watched him touch her.

I shuddered, wondering what that touch would feel like. Would it be warm? Cold? I looked away.

We all turned a blind eye.

I could feel Bannick’s rage on the other side of me, but it wasn’t one of war. It was jealousy.

He had his eye on the woman like she held the world’s secrets.

No, things would never be the same again.

And days later, when Sariel slept with the woman, when they produced the world’s first Dark One — we were punished.

I cried out as lightning split the sky in two, as black snow began to fall across my face, as The Creator once and for all looked upon us, and then turned away.

And his turn caused darkness to descend like a choking blanket around each and every one of us.

I ripped at my armor.

Pried it from my body so I could breathe.

“He’s gone.” Armaros fell to his knees. “The Creator has left us.”

“Our punishment was not as severe as it should have been,” I whispered.

I watched as Bannick took to the skies, his white wings carrying him higher and higher to the Heavens until he started to fall.

I gasped in horror as his body increased speed then hit the ground with earthquake-like severity, and when I ran over to him to help, all I saw was black broken wings.

And red in his hair, as if his defiance had caused The Creator to mark him for death.

“There is only one thing we can do,” Armaros said, turning away. “We earn our way back, whatever it takes, guard the human plane as The Creator has asked. We must be vigilant in watching. We must not look away.”

Bannick stood and shouted at the Heavens, then he fell to his knees again and cursed The Creator to the abyss.

“It may be too late for some of us,” I whispered.

The vision shifted, and suddenly I was in a small hut with Armaros staring me down like I’d done something unforgivable. Maybe I had. A thousand years had passed, and still no word from The Creator.

Not even when I’d built altars for Him.

When I’d praised His land.

When I’d built up forests with my bare hands, made trees sing His name.

I’d hunted with the wolves, helped them feed their young, interacted with the Alpha as if he was my own kind.

They were favored among The Creator, built from His very hands, their flesh kneaded by the very trees and dirt they protected. The protectors of earth, I honored them, and He still refused to honor me back.

I may as well be dead.

I took a seat opposite Armaros.

His eyes narrowed, and then he flinched. “What have you done, brother?”

“Nothing that can be undone.” I shrugged and took a seat as Bannick waltzed in with a victorious smirk like I’d actually given in to his evil ways.

Armaros shifted his attention back to me. “Do not listen to him.”

“So, I should listen to you?” I yelled. It was all for show; it always was when it came to Bannick, but he didn’t need to know that. Only Armaros truly knew me, knew my soul desire to create not destroy. “I have everything I need here.”

“Yes.” Armaros sighed. “We rule dust and destruction. How lovely for us, and how benevolent of him, right, Bannick?”

Bannick slammed his hand onto the table between us. “Don’t you see? We will be here suffering for millennia.”

“Our job is to guard the human planes,” Armaros said carefully. “If we do our job, The Creator will honor us.”

He’d been saying the same damn thing since the dawn of time. And still.

Silence.

Heavens above, I was disgusted with silence.

“The Creator doesn’t even answer your song anymore, Armaros, most favored! Do you think for one second he would return the rest of us?” Bannick snapped.

Armaros looked away.

I felt shame wash over me. What I’d done was wrong.

I’d prayed in that moment, as the blade had pierced my heart — for The Creator to take me home.

I’d wanted to die.

I’d tried everything but the forbidden way to help take my own life — to give life — as was The Creator’s only job. I’d taken His job in hopes He would look my way; He would see that I was committing the ultimate sin.

But it had actually worked. I had not died, and the boy would grow strong. And for that, I would have some peace at least during my miserable existence.

“One day…” Bannick charged off. “…one day, you’ll see.”

Armaros shared a look with me and then whispered. “Let me see your chest.”

I flinched with pain.

Why was I in pain?

I’d never felt pain before, but I knew that was what this was, this feeling.

I dropped to my knees as silver blood began spewing from the wound on my chest.

Armaros caught me before I hit the ground. Light filled the room, and my shame grew with every passing second. “I know what you’ve done.”

The voice was gentle.

It wasn’t booming.

It held no judgement.

Just truth.

I closed my eyes.

“Open,” the voice commanded.

A small boy stood before me, his face glowing with light.

I reached for his hand.

He took a step and then allowed me to feel him, to feel his warmth.

“Bannick means this for evil, what you have done.” He grinned. “But I am The Creator, am I not? I see all? Know all? I let my children choose.”

“Yes,” I croaked. “You are. You do.”

Armaros shook beside me. It was the only logical reaction to something so good, so fiercely terrifying even angels shuddered in his presence. Had I still had my wings, they would be dripping with blood, in pain at his beauty.

“So, you may choose now.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You can stay with your brothers here, guarding the planes, or you can die, your soul will be united with mine, but your body will be forfeited to another. Never again will you walk with your brothers on this plane, never again will you watch. But you will be whole.”

It was the final thread. He would sever the final link between me and my brothers. The only thing that kept us sane was each other and our creator. And now he was offering me Him, but without them.

How could I choose?

“Why?” I shook my head. “Why would you gift me with this after what I’ve done?”

HIs smile was blinding. “Because my plan is much bigger… than you.”

Tears filled Armaros’ eyes. “Go, brother. Go.”

“But—” I shook my head. “—those who watch… We all have a human plane to watch. It’s… it is our duty, our punishment. I cannot part from you!”

Armaros stood tall. “I will watch for you.”

Tears filled my eyes. I knew the toll I was asking him to endure just so my soul could return, the pain my brothers would suffer when my consciousness was taken from the fold. It would be an empty hole in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

“Go,” He said it again, urged me.

I looked to the Creator and gave him a single nod.

And felt nothing but peace.

“You will see him again,” The Creator whispered in the air, “but he will not be the same. He will need to make a choice just like the rest of you. But the immortal is powerful. He is… a Great Wolf. A warrior. He will do Gadreel proud.”

Armaros nodded.

And the vision faded.

I stumbled backward as Armaros’ eyes returned to a pale blue, and then he held out his hand and pressed it against my shoulder. “Welcome home, brother.”

I collapsed at his feet.

And howled.